Is it just me or is Randy Orton not being used properly?

[mpn62]

Hear me out on this. The WWE is building Orton as the anti-face, basically the new Stone Cold. When I see Orton on TV, he gets pops, but nothing to the level like he did a few months back. I went to RAW in DC several months ago and when Orton hit 4 RKO's in a row, the crowd went nuts!!! When his music hit, the crowd went nuts!! Now, you get the initial pop, but it seems to die out. Take RAW last night. After he RKO'd Michael Cole, the crowd was pretty much dead. Now, I could be way off on this, but the WWE could very well be controlling the volume of reactions of fans with their audio (WCW used to pump GOLDBERG chants through the speakers and at that same RAW, the WWE pump a huge cheer for Cena during his match intro). I think they want Cena as the top star for years with Orton playing second fiddle. It would be nice for WWE Creative to go back and look at how Austin was used and the reactions he got to put Orton over big time. Have Orton chase the belt. Put him in an awesome storyline like the Austin-McMahon storyline. Have him RKO people at random. I know rehashing old storylines can suck, but if done right, it could be successful (i.e. nWo-Nexus angle. Kinda like the nWo, except with rookies). I'm sorry for being all over the place with this, but I'm looking forward to hearing responses. Thanks.

 

[wwetv21]

not really, and right now wwe is focusing on getting new stars, like the miz, they arent gnna take away the tittle or else it would just be pointless to give him a title. and there not only the miz, they have a load of young upper mid carters. and randy orton is already popular and is the top of wwe, but u need other guys for when orton and cena are gone.

 

[Tattooed Jesus]

Orton unlike Stone Cold and The Rock is horrible in the face role. Austin and Rock could go back and forth and still get great love or hate from the crowd. Orton just cannot pull off anything other than a heel. Everything he does is heelish from his walk, to his poses, to his moves, to the way he speaks. He is just a bad guy, and when he is trying to be the good guy it just seems so forced and unnatural. He could have been the top heel in the business for years to come, I just don't get why WWE wants him to be a face.

 

[Nukester]

Orton has been given every opportunity to be the top guy as a face and as a heel. The result? PPV buy rates down, ticket sales down, and disappointing merchandise sales. He is solid in the ring, but other than that, he's Austin without the charisma, mic skills, and beer.
At this point, using him "properly" would be in the mid card as an occasional contender to the US or IC championships.

 

[Matt7584]

First off Orton has complete character creative control on himself. Like Cena his promos are controlled by him not by the creative team. Since the "IWC" like to claim that Orton is better at chasing the title then owning. This is quite ridiculous. Orton has no charisma in and out of the ring. Hes a great worker but lets be honest hes gotten pretty stale because he hasn't changed his image. Just remember Austin became a tweener because he was feuding with top face in the company. Then he feuded with the boss using curse words and middle fingers. Austin would feud with anyone whether they were the face or the heel. Orton is only feuding with the heels. If orton would start a feud with a face like he did with cena and that caused his tweener image then he would be more interesting. But hes no tweener hes a boring face who's lost reality on how to be the best in the game. Cena has all the tools becuase his heart is in everything he does. orton seems at times to be less then interested in his feuds and we are buying into that fact now. Orton needs a feud with Morrison to raise him up and get the crowd to be confused.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

I most definitely believe he is not being used well. Since Wrestlemania 26, he has had absolutely nothing to work with. Here some examples of where Orton is having trouble.

His Feuds

Since Wrestlemania 26, he's feuded (primarily) with Edge, Sheamus and Wade Barrett. Which one of these feuds came with great, entertaining storylines? None of them. With Edge, they did nothing. They exchanged finishers every week, and the whole thing was based on Edge wanting to make an "impact" on Raw..who, exciting stuff WWE!

His feud with Sheamus was..mehh. It was boring. Neither guy did much worth talking about, especially on the mic. They, like Edge and Orton, basically exchanged big moves each week, and then had a PPV match. Not to mention they were completely overshadowed by the Nexus storyline.

Orton then won the title, and shouldn't have. It was about as anti-climactic as a title win can get. He's your hottest singles star at the time, and that's how he wins the title? At an off-name PPV, that no one cared about? It was a pathetic title win scenario.

Then, Orton gets a feud with Barrett...sort of. The problem with this feud had a lot to do with Orton/Barrett not being the primary feud. That feud was all about Cena/Nexus. Orton would show up, and RKO someone, etc., etc. That was all! He was given nothing interesting to do, at all. I guess we'll see what happens with The Miz, but with WWE's track record in terms of booking the "tweener" Orton character, I don't have much hope.

The Matches

Since Wrestlemania 26, Orton hasn't had much to work with in terms of opponents either. Edge is a shell of what he was once. He's not exciting or unpredictable anymore. He's slow and out-of-shape. Sheamus and Orton have zero chemistry. Wade Barrett has a GREAT character, but what has he proven in the ring? When has he had a great match?

The Barrett/Sheamus marks can come out and say what they want, but Orton has a track record of good-to-great matches with guys like Taker, HBK, HHH, Cena, Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, and Kurt Angle. Hell, he's even gotten good matches out of Batista. People can piss and moan all they want about Orton's in-ring skills, but he's a proven guy. Sheamus and Barrett are not.

I think they need to turn Orton lose. Give him something interesting to say. WWE is heavily scripted today, so I'm buying into Orton just being boring on his own. He is given anything interesting to say, so he's boring right now. If they have to turn him back heel for him to be entertaining again, fine. Do it. But if they are going to keep him face, for Christ sakes, give him something to do.

 

[AlwaysHasBeen]

It's not just you. Orton is not being used properly. IMO the only reason he's being pushed so hard is because he's another pretty face like John Cena who WWE needs to milk for every penny they are worth with merchandise sales. He has developed a persona and his own style but has only had memorable matches against true wrestlers (Undertaker, HHH, HBK).

 

[Wade's Public Transit Bomb]

I think Orton's usage comes down to three things:

He isn't good at show casing new talent. Those matches with Sheamus and Wade sucked oodles of ass. Yet, you put either guy with Cena, and the match will knock our socks off. Orton is good at what he does, which is the epileptic impressions and his offense. However, he is completely deadpan as a face. Unless he is on offense, the crowd just doesn't care for Orton.

Orton is NOT the top guy. Reactions don't mean shit when Cena is around. Raw is still The John Cena Show and will continue to be The John Cena Show until someone takes his spot as da man in sells and talent. Orton is nothing compared to Cena in just about everything except in the "tanned" and "tattooed" categories.

But I think most importantly, Cena vs Wade Barrett & The Nexus have been completely knocking it out of the park. I don't see how a wrestling fan couldn't get into what they have been doing.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

He isn't good at show casing new talent.

Bullshit. Total bullshit. How about his match at Extreme Rules with Jack Swagger? How about on Smackdown against Cody Rhodes? Matches against Ted DiBiase? You can go on and on about Sheamus and Barrett, and attempt to cover them by trashing Orton, but you're wrong. Orton sold like crazy during each match he had with Sheamus and Barrett. He let both of those guys beat the hell out of him, and showcase their offense. He was booked to win the matches, so of course he was eventually going to come back and win, by way of hitting offensive moves! It's the way it happens.

Those matches with Sheamus and Wade sucked oodles of ass. Yet, you put either guy with Cena, and the match will knock our socks off.

Sheamus and Barrett have had decent matches with Cena, but they haven't "knocked anyones socks off." Decent matches, nothing like you are making them out to be. Fact is, neither Sheamus nor Barrett have proven themselves great in-ring competitors, Barrett especially.

However, I do agree (as I said earlier) that Randy is becoming stale as a face. Not just becoming, has been for a while. But to say it's his fault, after the way he's been booked over the last several months, is ridiculous. Your teenage-crush Wade Barrett has received some kick-ass booking, and you combine that with a good character, and of course he's going to be over. Orton, on the other hand, is still massively over, despite being booked for shit.

Like I said earlier, it's getting to the point where I almost hope Orton turns heel again. If WWE is going to continue to march him out there, and have nothing of substance for him to do, what's the point? He was almost universally praised as the top heel in the business, so why wouldn't we want him to return to that role?

 

[SuperSteve16]

I think the reason that Randy Orton isn't being used to his potential at the moment is because there is nobody other then Cena, Barrett and Sheamus to reallly fued with. Like it or not, RAW hasn't got much starpower without Cena and Orton becuase of Jericho, Triple H, CM Punk, Evan Bourne and Christian all being inactive. John Cena is in one of the biggest storylines in the last couple of years with the Nexus and Sheamus is now in a fued with the up and coming John Morrison. Who else is their to fued with other then the Miz without breaking up these storylines. R-Truth? The Hart Dynasty? Santino? The WWE is trying to get the Miz some credability as champion but beating Randy Orton so whats wrong with that? Don't worry, Randy Orton will be back to his crazy ass self on the road to wrestlemania

 

[Y2JChrisJericho]

I'm going to go a bit out of character and just say....

I'm sick of people saying someone is mis used ALL The TIme, I swear the whole IWC thinks everyone is mis used. He just came off a world title run, and he's looking stronger than ever. Orton to me seems to be the most "over" and the most strongest wrestler in the whole WWE. I just don't get how anyone think he's being mis used. Lets just have Orton win every match. I'm sorry for acting like a total B*itch, but threads like this annoy me to such a high extent, especially towards someone like Randy Orton. This thread baffles me, please someone put me in my place.

 

[GLOBAL ICON]

Not being used properly? What shit! Of course he's being used properly. Okay, I agree that until SummerSlam, he was doing nothing and was put in bullshit storylines and ridiculous matches. But after SummerSlam, he's been on a roll. He won the title at N.O.C, retained it till Survivor Series and then lost it. Now if you're complaining about Orton losing the title to The Miz, he had to lose the title and Miz had the MITB so WWE decided to use it. Plus his reactions, I think they come to his finisher. Once it is over, the chants are over. There is no reason why I think you should think he isn't being booked properly.

 

[theundisputedY2D2]

I think there's a case to be made for saying that Orton hasn't been handled that well since he's turned face.

At one point he was the hottest guy in the company but then it's almost as if WWE said "We want Orton to be our Number 1 guy........just as long as he doesn't overshadow John Cena". Whilst Cena has been in a months long feud with Nexus, Orton - the supposed new head babyface on RAW - hasn't had any feuds of note.

The feud with Edge was completely rushed and then Orton picked up an injury so it kinda got nixed. Potentially, that feud is a Wrestlemania headliner. The feud with Sheamus was meh. And in the recent feud with Wade Barrett, Orton played second fiddle to a certain Mr Cena's feud with Nexus, despite being the reigning WWE champion.

For me, if WWE wanted Orton to be their lead babyace on RAW then he should have been treated as such, not as the next guy in line behind John Cena. That was one mistake they made. Another was putting the title on him so soon, in a bit of a throwaway match. His first WWE title win of this 'face' run should have been held off until Wrestlemania 27, after a long chase. Also, as has been mentioned, he should have stayed tweener, have him mix it up with heels AND faces. Finally, I would have had Orton be the main man in the feud with Nexus (which could keep him away from the title for a while). I'd have had Cena trying to recruit Orton in the fight against Nexus for ages, with Orton always saying no or walking away until finally during a huge beatdown by Nexus, he'd sprint to the ring and start nailing people with RKO's. He could still be presented as his own man, no handshakes or hugs with his RAW 'team-mates', just kick Nexus asses and leave.

Orton doesn't have Rock-like charisma so he's not going to talk people into the arenas, but he does have a presence about him, and when he was playing the badass tweener he did it really well and people responded. WWE Creative should have done their utmost to establish Orton as THE guy without having to resort to a fully-fledged babyface turn.